Friday, July 20, 2018

Burton Richter Dies at 87

Another giant in our field, especially in elementary particle physics, has passed away. Burton Richter, Nobel Laureate in physics, died on July 18, 2018.

Richter’s Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the J/psi subatomic particle,
shared with MIT’s Samuel Ting, confirmed the existence of the charm
quark. That discovery upended existing theories and forced a
recalibration in theoretical physics that reverberated for years. It
became known as the “November Revolution.” One Nobel committee member at
the time described it as “the greatest discovery ever in the field of
elementary particles.”

He would be shortchanged if all the public ever remembers him is for his Nobel Prize discovery, because he did a whole lot more in his lifetime.